Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. Clearly, assisting or regularising the position of the undocumented Irish must form part of a comprehensive immigration reform programme. Like the Tánaiste, I welcome the fact that, in two major speeches recently, President Obama placed a certain priority on a legislative initiative to deal with this issue. I also welcome the cross-party support for and work on devising a worthwhile initiative.

Am I correct in believing that the priority for Irish lobbyists has traditionally been the provision of E-3 visas, which would give approximately 10,500 undocumented Irish the legal status to work in the US for up to two years? We hope that the proposed reform will be successful, but I read that one Irish lobbyist group is concerned about the fact that the reform period will be eight years long. The 30,000 to 50,000 undocumented Irish in the US want to go about their work normally in the meantime while being able to travel home to visit their families if necessary. What is the likely timeline for an initiative's enactment, should such an initiative be successfully passed by Congress?

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